A few weeks ago my DH and I took our little one to have her six month pictures.  She did great!

......Mommy struggled a bit.

I just look at this little thing that can now sit up, sleep through the night, and eat off of my plate and I think, "Where did my baby go?"  It's like she's already turning into this little girl.  

Then I proceed to look at pictures of my nieces, nephew, and sweet little cousins and I know that it's only going to get worse!

On the one hand it seems like every age brings with it something precious that you cherish.  (It also brings something that you could live without, but we're not going to focus on that right now)  On the other it seems like so many of the stages are over with before you get your fill of them.  

I now understand why people have a dozen kids.  (Okay, I'm not having a dozen, but you get my point!)  I mean I'm already starting to plan her first birthday party and it feels like I just had her yesterday.

BTW - Party's going to have a rubber duck theme and it's going to rock, so you all should come.  

But back to the picture.  I have a few others that I would like to post, BUT I don't know how to keep them from showing up side ways.  

Sara can customize her border and make it rock.  I can't even get my pictures to align right.  I am SOOOOO behind.

Well, the subject of my post is now eating the power cord to my computer.  While it's still plugged into the wall.  Since I am absolutely sure that that is a bad thing, I'm going to head out.

More later!

Perspective

Today I am not in my normal little corner of the world.  No, today I am a bit north and am hanging out with my sister-in-law in Knoxville.  Helping her babysit.  But babysit is such a tame term for what we're doing.  A more appropriate one would be "herding cats!"  In short today has been a wonderful lesson in perspective for me.

You see, we don't just have my little one to handle.  No, we have her 6 year old, my 6 month old, our 1 year old niece, and her 2 year old TRIPLETS!  Just in case you weren't doing a head count.  That's a round half dozen.

Not that they aren't sweet.  They are, and I love them all.  But six little girls is enough to be overwhelming to any one.  Poor Amy can't get one mess cleaned up or fight stopped before another is breaking out.  And trust me when I say that what one doesn't think of another will.  Let me give you a short breakdown of our day.

First, Breakfast.  We have 6 that need to eat.  The sooner you get them the food the sooner the noise volume dies down to a "sub deafening" level.  Then the oldest is off to kindergarten.  

Now playtime.  It's raining so unfortunately outside is out.  With in less than 20 minutes one of the triplets is bleeding from about 5 scratch marks down her cheek, another has colored  the kitchen floor with chalk, the 12 month old has fallen into the toy box and is now stuck upside down, and the last triplet found gum that she has now chewed and stuck into her sisters hair.

The same sister with the scratch marks and we're not sure if it was a "fresh" piece of gum or not.  

And the last time I popped my head in one of the triplets was eating poop.  

I really don't see how my sister-in-law does this day after day.  And she never gets mad, never gets upset.  She just has the most level personality and doesn't really get worked up about anything.  Kind of like an Aunt of mine.  I don't have that kind of personality.

Where am I?  

Hiding....In the office......Where I'm "working" while my own baby takes a nap.

Yup, I'm a chicken.  But like I said, perspective.  My days at home with just one little one really aren't so bad.  

At least she doesn't eat poop.

Yet.

Small Victories

I'd like to talk about a small victory that we have recently had at our house.  Now, to some of you this might not seem like that big of a deal, but in our neck of the woods (ha ha woods) this is a pretty pig deal.  

So what is it already?

Well quite simply my sweet baby girl has FINALLY consented to eat something!  I don't want you to think that I've been starving the poor child.  As you can see she is quite well fed. (In fact my father-in-law calls her 2 Ton Tessa, but that's a whole different post!)

No, she eats well, its just that up to this point we haven't been able to convince her that food does exist outside of nursing.  This is the child that WILL NOT take a bottle and WILL NOT take a pacifier.  It's not that we haven't tried either one, we have and many times, she is just convinced that both are most definitely poison of the worst form.

She does like cups however.  The fuller the better and they can't have lids.  In fact, my DH is learning just how long those little arms really are!

But, as I said we have had a break through.  And now as you can see my DD's culinary world is reaching new heights.  And cookies are my friends!

We have been trying baby food, but she just gags that up.  Literally, this child will sit there and gag until it comes back up.  It doesn't matter if it takes 10 minutes.  She's persistent.  

I hesitate to mention that as I have several people that just say that I deserve every minute of it.  Apparently I was quite to puker myself.  Who Knew?

Now if we can just convince her that there is life beyond cookies we're in business!

Where Does She Get This Stuff!

I have to admit, I'm an addict.  To my cousins' blogs that is.  You see, I apparently have two (and sometimes three) very witty cousins (Jess - Les, you know who you are!) that keep me constantly amused with the random musings on their blogs.  I find that I have to stop by at least every few days to see what new tidbits they have to offer me.  The great part is that I am always guaranteed a smile and usually even a small chuckle.  It's just a great and uplifting part of my day.

But at the end of it all I invariably find myself wondering, "where to they get this stuff!"  I mean, I think I live a pretty full and interesting life,  (okay, that might be a lie, I'm a stay at home mom with a 6 month old.  Exciting these days means I got to shower this morning.  But I digress) but I find that I just don't have half of the fun things to talk about that they do.   

I mean who would ever think to post about Newsies (sheer genius by the way), strange British desserts, or really sweet British YouTube clips?  (That last one was Les's not the cousin who is currently living in England) 

And the pictures!  I have to say, the main reason that you haven't seen anything new from me in quite a while is that all the pictures that I posted in my last post took me 3 days and several tries to get up.  I don't see how they do it!  And Jess, do you really just have that camera with you 24/7?  Because some of the shots that you get are just fabulous.  Like the crumbs of your weird British pie for example.  

And it's not that I don't try.  I sit down to write, all inspired by what I've seen and then......Nothing!  Because at the end of the day does anyone really want to hear about whether or not I've been puked on that day (usually yes) or the state of my daughter's diapers?  I'm thinking no!

I guess that I'll just have to try and do better.  Because averaging a whopping one or two posts in a whole month is just sad!

And I'm not even going to try for a picture.  I'll just do another post and stick it there! 

Check out my Slide Show!

It's Great to Have Friends!!!!

This past weekend me wonderful friend Chris came in to visit.  And all the way from Tulsa too! She and I have been friends for a long time now and I always look forward to her visits.  She is one of those friends that it just doesn't matter how long it goes between visits.  We are able to pick up like we just saw each other yesterday.  Love that!

Anyways,  I wanted to share some pics of our time together.  You will quickly see what the focus of the visit was!

First up we have a practice run for the world's cutest Easter Bunny!  Just look at those cheeks!

Now the first bunny was good, but this one is probably one of the cutest pictures that I have ever seen!  (Not that I am partial or anything!)  On a side note, I can't take credit for this photo masterpiece, her Aunt Chris took this picture.  

Here we have my DD and her daddy a the pottery place.  I swear, that child had him trained from minute one.  But I really don't think that's a bad thing!

Here is my DD with her Aunt Chris.  You think she is just sitting there sweetly, but really she's plotting the best way to get hands on the paint.  The adults might have won this round on that front, but I hold no hopes for hanging on for the shut out.

And in the end Mommy just couldn't resist snagging a few kisses of her own!  Can you blame me?  Of course, my DD was only willing so long as I let her use my fingers as teethers.  Can't blame her.  I have to say that they do look mighty tasty!

Happy Birthday to ME!!

Okay, so it's not my birthday, but its close enough to count!

This year I can honestly say for the first time that I feel older. (Probably look it too, but that's just a whole different post!)  But I think that the whole feeling older thing can be traced directly back to the lack of sleep discussed in my previous post.

Remember what it was like when Birthdays just rocked.  A whole day devoted to the wonderfulness of you!  Mom makes your favorite dinner, Dad assembles whatever 10,000 piece toy you simply had to have.  And you and your friends get to wreck havoc on the house for a full 24 hour period.  

Ahhhh those were the days!  (I say this from the perspective of the parent whose child is not yet old enough to wreck said havoc)

Back then, your birthday was something to look forward to.  Because it seemed that every birthday brought with it new and amazing privileges that were unthinkable the year before.  A little more freedom, a little more responsibility.  

think about it:

1st B-Day - You get to WALK.  Way cooler than waiting for someone to take you where you want to go.

5th B-Day - Ge to go to school! A huge goal of mine.  That is until I realized that I didn't get to go with my sister.

8th B-Day - Some

where around here I graduated to the front seat.  But that might have been because Jana went to college and not due to an age thing.

14 - Permit

16 - License

18 - Vote 

21 - Drink

24 - Rent a Car

and then.....well, nothing!

Now your just marking the years until you can apply for AARP.

It's really kind of anti-climatic.

So that's where I sit.  A twenty something with nothing better to do than watch the big 3-0 creep closer and closer with every passing year.  yea~!~

I did get a pretty great birthday present this year though, cause look who I got to spend it with!

I will say one thing though.  The older you get the better you get 

at making your birthday last as loooooooong as possible. At this point I have Adam convinced that I OWN the entire month of February.

He still only gets a day.  As he should.